July 2024

• 200,173 active users were connected to our bot.

We used to count all users when counting bot users, but since February we count only active users — those who haven’t unsubscribed and continue to receive our newsletters.
 

• our legal instructions were viewed 17,076 times,
• we received 700 calls on our hotline.

In total, our operators and volunteers spent 23 hours, 39 minutes and 41 seconds on the phone.

Lawyers of the hotline

• conducted 49 consultations by phone,
• responded to 93 letters,
• audited 4 appeals received through our online-generator.

Legal aid

We provide and coordinate legal assistance in cases related to the restrictions of freedom of peaceful assembly or freedom of speech. Our attorneys visit those detained in police departments, support defendants in Russian administrative and criminal courts, and file complaints with the European Court of Human Rights.

Assistance on cases of administrative offences

Our lawyers, jurists, and defenders:

• Visited police departments 7 times, where they helped 7 detainees,
• helped 18 people in court sessions for administrative cases.

We Have Launched a Court Hearing Tracking Bot

For those facing politically motivated prosecution, your support is indispensable. A particular boost to morale is the presence of concerned individuals in court. With the help of a volunteer, we created a bot that tracks court hearings and provides key information on defendants.

Here’s what the bot can do:

• notify you of upcoming hearings related to politically motivated criminal cases in your city or district;
• add hearings to your personal calendar;
• provide information about defendants involved in politically motivated prosecution, including mailing addresses, support groups, and brief case records.

Criminal cases

We consider all the charges and criminal cases brought in connection with them to be unlawful and politically motivated.

Our lawyers, jurists, and defenders:

• accompanied defendants during 1 interrogation;
• entered into 3 new criminal cases;
• worked on 91 criminal cases against 101 people in 51 cities.

You can send a letter of support to our defendants — many of them get very few or don’t get letters at all.

News and media

The authorities that violate human rights prefer to avoid publicity. But as they say, silence in the face of evil is itself evil. We believe that information protects, and that media and social attention can prevent violations and change the whole picture.

We have prepared and released 354 express news about political persecution in 72 regions of Russia and 8 longreads on political persecution.

WHAT TO READ

Muslims in the Kremlin’s crosshairs: what you need to know

This article was produced in a collaboration with Daraj Media. Read the Arabic version of the article on their website or check out their English-language page.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

The Dissident Digest — free weekly newsletter in English!
The Digest is your window into the dark world of the Kremlin’s war on human rights and civil society in Russia. The Dissident Digest informs you through data, news and explainers. The newsletter is by no means all-encompassing but we strive to provide you with a snapshot of most important developments.

Our weekly bulletin

• A family ‘extremist group’
• Six years’ imprisonment — for a play
• Gershkovich gets 16 years — and other sentences
• Prosecution for art

If you want to be informed about political repressions in Russia, follow us on Twitter and Instagram or visit our website.

Reports and research

At our organisation, we examine emerging problems from various angles, which helps us work out present-day tactical solutions and lay the strategic foundation for future systemic change. The results of our analyses are published as reports, data sets, or special projects.

We have released guidelines for those conducting and participating in research in Russia:

• We have created a general safety guide for research participants. 
  How safe is it to take part in a social survey or be interviewed by a researcher? What if the researchers are foreigners, foreign agents, or 'undesirables'? In our guide, we’ve compiled some basic digital and general safety tips that could be useful in such cases. If you are asked to participate in a research study and want to assess the risks before deciding whether to accept, please contact us through the bot or at [email protected].
• We have prepared a handbook for researchers working with Russian respondents. This handbook is designed to assist social science researchers conducting fieldwork in Russia. It outlines the main risks and challenges that may arise during such research, with a strong focus on the safety of both the researcher and the respondents. If you plan to conduct research with Russian respondents using this guide and need additional legal, technical, or ethical support from OVD-Info, please fill out the form, and we will assist you.

«According to OVD-Info» newsletter
Our research team is very active, and it is difficult to put all of their work into one letter. Therefore, we have a newsletter available in English. You can subscribe to follow our news and publications of upcoming reports and datasets.

International advocacy

We have a page on our site that is dedicated to international advocacy. We’re also talking about reports and appeals to other in international institutions and the results of such.
 

Together with the Memorial Center, we filed an appeal to the Council of Europe.

In the appeal, we have gathered proofs that the unlawful persecution of human rights work and activism continues and has a systemic nature. We asked the Committee of Ministers to pay attention to the following facts:

• The authorities exert particular pressure on human rights defenders working in the North Caucasus, collaborating with international organisations, and addressing issues related to historical memory.
• Some Russian laws have been deliberately passed to suppress human rights work and freedom of expression — for example, the laws on 'foreign agents, ' 'fakes, ' and 'discrediting' the army.
• Activists are unjustifiably banned from entering Russia or have their residence permits revoked, and courts process such decisions formally, reversing them only on the basis of procedural errors.

How much we collected

We highly value our community of donors who participate in crowdfunding initiatives. Their contributions not only provide essential financial support but also signify a shared commitment to our mission and values. We recognize the trust and dedication of our donors and strive to foster a strong sense of community and transparency in all our crowdfunding efforts.

Total transfers

• 19,042 donations
• € 629,847*

*The following significant increase is due to donation transfers from GlobalGiving, which were sent to us before the cut-off but only reached us this month. We convert donations made in other currencies into euros at the average exchange rate of the month or the exchange rate on the date of payment.

The figure includes:

• 816 direct transfers made to OVD-Info defendants through the «Zaodno» (a platform where you can support defendants of OVD-Info and other human rights projects directly — from card to card), totalling € 10,485;
• transfer of donations collected on the GlobalGiving platform: in July, 3,633 donations totaling 151,584 euros reached us, which were donated between July 2022 and July 2024;
• a transfer from a donor who had previously supported us on the GlobalGiving platform, totaling 355,013 euros.

How much we spent

OVD-Info spends donors' donations on legal assistance to defendants, dissemination of information about political repressions in Russia and development of the project. About 40-60% of all private donations go to pay defenders, advocates and lawyers.

We expended a total of € 376,652, all of which was funded by your donations and transfers from various sources. Here’s a breakdown of how the funds were used:

• € 88,371 — legal assistance. Our lawyers and human rights defenders worked tirelessly to provide legal aid to detainees in police departments and courts, and coordinated assistance in criminal cases throughout the month.
• € 39,125 — the work of our hotline operators and reporters. Our monitoring group received calls to the hotline and messages in the telegram bot every day, and reported news to aid detainees, not only during large-scale actions, but also for regular detentions that occur almost every day in Russia.
• € 31,721 — the work of our media team. We believe that information can be a powerful tool in protecting political rights. To make information about political rights violations public, we prepared and published significant articles, created guides for major criminal cases, launched special projects, gave interviews, and talked about it on all available social networks.
• € 19,554 — data projects, reports and research. We collect and analyse data on political persecution to make informed decisions and help journalists and researchers understand the situation. Based on the collected data, we prepare comprehensive reports that analyse how legislative practices and repressive laws enable political persecution.
• € 11,248 — international advocacy. We protect freedom of assemblies, words and associations both in Russia and on an international level and try to make visible repressions in Russia and weight with changes of laws and practices, that are violating international standards. For such a reason we’re conducting summaries and analitical data, participating in events and conferences and organising our own meetings to get visibility of such violations and get independent assessment from international institutions, such as UN, OSCE, Europe Union. The help of lawyers in preparations of complaints that are sent to ECHR and their work on strategic cases also is part of this direction of work.
• € 34,449 — the work of our IT team. We developed tools and services that help to protect ourselves and others, ensure the stable operation of our entire system, and share our work with other initiatives.
• € 11,542 — volunteer coordination. Our volunteers are our backbone and the best team of like-minded individuals. We are committed to expanding our community and ensuring that volunteers actively participate in the project’s life.
• € 70,943 — operational support of the project. Thanks to this work, which is not always visible, we continue to help those who need help and spend our energy and resources more efficiently. It includes the costs of team members who ensure the daily work and planning of the project and are responsible for the sustainability of OVD-Info in the long term, budget planning, strategic goals, communication with donors and financial transparency. This also includes the costs of caring for team members: psychological assistance, development of the competencies of participants and their safety.
• € 53,321 — infrastructure costs. Since October 2023, we have included payments for key services (such as telephony) in the expenses of the respective areas. Infrastructure costs encompass components directly related to the team’s operations and the overall project, including office expenses, accounting fees, commissions to infrastructure partners who assist us, and applicable taxes.
• € 4,449 — bank account maintenance and payment systems commission. We use several payment systems, and the interest rates are all different. This amount is calculated as a percentage of donations and expenses on the account. It depends not only on our expenses but also on the amount of income. The increase in the amount was also influenced by an increase in the commission from the payment system that we use to accept and process donations.
• € 8,689 — additional taxes and fees. We have allocated part of the fees in the cost structure to cover taxes that are not included in other cost items.
• € 3,240 — support of new or friendly initiatives. To make our project flexible and stable, we’re developing intercommunion with other human right organisations and independent media, whose values and principles are not opposed to ours. We also support new projects that help us fight political prosecution. With the help of our new partners we create new projects, while shared expertise, knowledge and resources make us stronger.
  
  Thank you for standing with us!